Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Episode 38: Zaga-33 and MicRogue

Welcome to Roguelike Radio episode 38, where we discuss the tiny roguelikes Zaga-33 and MicRogue. Talking this episode are Ido Yehieli, Keith Burgun, Michael Bough (maker of Zaga-33) and Jason Pickering (maker of MicRogue).You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.

Topics discussed this week include: - Motivation behind the design of Zaga-33 and MicRogue - Line between puzzle and game - Limit to creativity potential and ambiguous decisions in tiny games - Proliferation of puzzley roguelikes - Choices between determinism and randomisation in design - Goals and score systems for replayability

I thought it was a shame that MicRogue mechanic of enemy on-death effects wasn't mentioned - it made for an interesting game element that added some of the ambiguity of choice that Keith was talking about.

That's a good point, I think there could have been whole discussion and comparison about that. Both games omit character progression, so there's not the standard "experience" benefit for killing enemies. Zaga-33 just leaves it at that; no direct benefit, so no reason to kill an enemy if it's not going to be in your way. But Microgue makes enemies sometimes be a resource the player can use - and maybe it's closer to standard rogue in that sense, even though it's done in a minimal abstracted way.

My HyperRogue has the "checkmate" rule (that has been discussed about in the podcast), and it is sometimes that I recommend for all so-called single hit point roguelikes. In HyperRogue, theoretically, when attacked by a single monster, you usually have an obvious winning strategy. It becomes interesting when you are attacked by multiple monsters. The checkmate rule means that you don't have to think in the obvious battles, only in the difficult ones.

I don't understand Keith's statement that puzzles have no ambiguous decisions. Good puzzles can have many answers, and it is possible that a new solver gives a solution which is more elegant and efficient than the known ones.

I presume because I edited the post to correct the MicRogue link. Sorry, didn't realise it would mess up xml stuff :/ Also, please advertise RogueBase.net more :P I've said it before, and it's worth saying again.

Haha no problems, I finally took your advice and made a announcement on RL Temple (General Category). Don't know how else to advertise it though. I think everyone on #rgrd irc channel know about it already. Thanks for your nice words 8]Now back to listening RL Radio - Episode 39!! So thank you for that too, lol.